Interesting Video on prehistoric earth ovens

[snedeker]

in B.C.

http://www.knowledgenetwork.ca/leadingedge/2008/index.html

[jamie]

that was cool. one statement i found wierd was when she said they would cook all the food for transport to the winter village. why precook so much food for storage. it would foul quicker , dont ya think. but she was really pretty so i pretty much forgot what happened the rest of the video

[snedeker]

Astute observation.  Hard to imagine the raw root wouldn't be pretty easy to transport and store well.  When you're in this position doi8ng an interview, often the interviewer wants a simple explanation.   I thought the older archaeologist lady was nice too.  I must be maturing.

D

[jamie]

shes the one i was talking about

[hawkbow]

There were people in the video .. all I saw was good elk huntin country...lol... thanks for sharing I learn something every day....usually very slowly but i do learn... Mike A/ho

[D. Tiller]

that was cool. one statement i found wierd was when she said they would cook all the food for transport to the winter village. why precook so much food for storage. it would foul quicker , dont ya think. but she was really pretty so i pretty much forgot what happened the rest of the video

Root crops are a bit different than meat animals. You have to cook these ones to get the vital sugers coneverted from inedible to an edible type. Also, they probably only cooked them there and then further dried them and ground them up into flour that would be lighter to transport. Trust me bitter root and cammas eaten raw would be a very bad experience! Bitter is bitter untill cooked and raw cammas, when you are not used to it, can give one Montazumas revenge!

David T

[cowboy]

I took a look at that Dave - interesting! I've always had an interest in digging around in the dirt and picking up fossils and neat looking rocks since I was kneehigh to a chigger . I noticed those gals in the first few clips - this aircard made me wait a good thirty minutes before I could watch the whole thing .

[D. Tiller]

Yeah! I have been on a few Archy. digs while getting my degree in Anthro. though the sites where I was where not as nice.  Snake river OR, they where not kidding when they called it Snake! Should have named it more like Snakes river!!!!  The other was next to a sewage treatment plane. 

Now I just make soap for a living! Wonder if the sewage plant forced me in this direction?

David T

[snedeker]

David

Ah, yes.  One of my associates here, an archaeologist with western experience, informed me that these were dried.  She says they must have had to roam over a pretty big area to get that much root, its not typically that concentrated?  I bet this was a women's activity, or maybe something done when multiple groups got together, probably combined with a festival and maybe to trade marrieage partners.

Dave

[D. Tiller]

snedeker, In the Palouse region and down south through OR there are some really concentrated areas of Camas roots and other wild tubers that grow in prodigious amounts. Its just dependent on the time of the year. Most of the nutrition that the Native Americans lived on came from these wild foods. Now that there are cattle and other destructive critters running around many of these wild edibles are much more rare. Too bad! Really nutritious stuff!

[stickbender]

     Yeah, maybe it's like Tiller said, they cooked a bunch, and dried them, and pulverized them for easier transport, storage, and later use.  I would imagine that the women, and children did most of the digging, and root gathering.  And speaking of Women......well, ......I guess that we really do think about one thing, " getting the women to fix dinner......"  I did notice both of them right off.  I actually think the older one was better looking, but would not cringe at the other one either.  I should've taken up Archeology!  Of course I never have been too proud to date the lesser looking women, but then I was also hoping they weren't too proud either......

                                                                                 Stick Bender